Rattlers - Rattlers - Rattlers

[ROGERD 16]

Thought you might like to see what a ball of rattlers look like. These pictures were supposedly taken down by Oracle. This should make you think to watch where you walk. :worm1: :escape: or dig... :postdigger:

[FlakMagnet 412]

Brrrrrrrrrr

it makes me realize just how nuts I was last year walking around at night

detecting without a headlamp during a full moon - you just can't beat dumb luck.

Flak

[garimpo 2,302]

Rogerd...in snake lingo that's know as a "den"....you can see it in the third pic real easy...a

hole in the bank of sand above the main mass....this is something folks don't see very

often....unless their detecting at night without a headlamp...

Don't worry Flak...if you stepped on one you probably wouldn't hurt him very much....a lot more

damage to your shorts....

[lotsa luck 30]

That photo has been around for a while with captions saying its from just about everywhere. I believe it ended up being staged. Just a few...

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/v...ic.php?p=921808

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/417863/

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1542546,1542546

[garimpo 2,302]

Thanks Lotaluck....in Eastern Okla. when I was a teenager I knew where one rattlesnake den

and one Copper head den were located....around 0800 they would all be out sunning in the

early morning sunlight....scary....

Now if we could just get FlakMagnet to "stage" stepping on one for a photo op...that would be

a hoot.....

[El Dorado 965]

That snake orgy sure does get around...........they must be living in a mobile hole

[Dakota Slim 1,141]

I think those are homing rattlers. Spanky has taught them to go out and eat nuggets and then come back and dump them in his back yard. :coffeetime:

[ROGERD 16]

Gents,

As I said I had no way to varify where the photos came from. But if anything, it's a reminder for us to pay attention to where we are detecting. I have seen scores of rattlers over the past 50 years and have a healthy respect for them. :icon_mrgreen:

[kamikaze 0]

YIKES!!! Are they having ssssssssex?

[drayegon 0]

Gents,

As I said I had no way to varify where the photos came from. But if anything, it's a reminder for us to pay attention to where we are detecting. I have seen scores of rattlers over the past 50 years and have a healthy respect for them. :icon_mrgreen:

OK how about this Photo. Would anyone like to tell me where it came from ??

As I still have all of the Skin and the TEN beads on the Rattle You might have guess I done brung it with me. My female German Shorthair Pointer Actually barked at it. She never barks when she is on Point. I taught her better than that. I went over to the bush she was barking at at the front edge of my lawn. All 4' of that sucker was there. He lost about 4 inches to my .410 snake shooter full of no.9 shot. That removed about four inches of it. That was only three weeks ago. It had gotten hot around here. 104-110F so that might have brought him out. I have never worried about wandering around in the middle of a dark night with no light. Yes I have been bit by one before but not at night. I just happened to step over a log instead of stepping on top of it. You should never step over a log in snake country always step up on top and then look to see if there is a snake at the bottom of the log. Every one does see that that snake is over 36inches long and about 2inches wide. That is even with the big chunk blown off the front end. I put a set of digital Calipers on the fangs they were just over .75in. I drained at least 5cc's of venom out of the sacs as well. We have now given it to the neighbors horse. RELAX my wife is a vet and would never do anything to hurt any animal.----Unless she was going to eat it. Then she will blow it away in a heart beat. I bought her a 12ga Browning Citori O/U 28in barrels for her 50th Birthday. She even cried tears of joy for it. She loved to shoot mine Citori so she got her own. You should have seen the look on some of the ladies faces when she got that for her birthday and started crying. Then she had to tell them while drying the tears away that yes she was very very very happy with it. Guess what folks that Gun did not have any engraving on it what so ever. except for the name Citori and the specs on the barrel plus the serial number. No lines on it no scrolls nothing. Browning say they dont send them out that way with no engraving on them. They have offered to buy it back from us. Guess what the Answer is on that. <G>

73

dray

[kuger 0]

John B. would be in heaven!!!!!!!!!

[John B. 46]

Hi Roger and All

Here's the facts about this series of photos. It probably is real but not from anywhere in Az. The snakes in the picture are not native to Arizona and are crotalas viridis which is the prairie rattlesnake. The pictures have been posted supposidly near kingman then tucson but were are probably taken in Kansas or nebraska or some point farther north. I have visited several den sites in southern Az and they do occure in higher country thoughout Az but you rarely see diamond backs , mohaves or other low elevation snakes in them. In the lower elevations and deserts hybernation is snoozing at best and doesn't require deep holes to protect them from freezing temps , generally any crevaces in rock outcrops or gopher or rat nest is sufficiant. In the high country or the northern lattitudes most species of snakes require deeper holes or cavities to survive freezing. In Az denning sites are used primarily by blacktails, Arizona blacks occasionally tigers and the smaller mountain species. At most den sites these pictures would be accurate on warm days thoughout the winter hybernation or early spring comming out of hybernation or the fall going in. A den site I visited in the Serritas in late march early april was primarrily Blacktails about 40, gopher snakes 6, one gila monster , one diamondback and a couple racers. I was told there were tortises there as well but I never saw them out. It was a warm calm sunny day and they were all out sunning and cuddling it was just soooo cute :twocents: !! Happy Huntin John B.

[Guest Potholes Bob-NM]

Packed in close like that they make a nice target for a 12Ga loaded with BB shot!

Gee, I haven't said anything to stir the stew for quite a while now, let's hear it from the tree huggers

Bob

[John B. 46]

Hi PH Bob

I thought you would have been a little more respectful of nature than that :confused0013: ?? RD and I had a nice chat about snakes up in rattlesnake canyon after we visited with one just off the roadway :woohoo: . I think he was a gentle soul and liked everything about the outdoors, be it good, bad or indifferent :bowdown: . Personnaly I could give a rats ass what you or anyone else does to snakes but just don't wine like a little girl when it comes back to bite you in the ass :twocents: !! Happy Huntin John B.

[John B. 46]

Hi Kuger

You are 100% right :cool04: !! I would enjoy that more than diggen a nugget unless of course it were a whopper :hmmmmmm: !! Happy Huntin John B.

[Guest Potholes Bob-NM]

There's another photo that was going around which shows a tight ball of hundreds of rattlers just inside of a large drainage conduit.

Maybe it's to keep warm when they den up for the Winter? :hmmmmmm:

Potholes :winking0011:

[Guest Potholes Bob-NM]

You hear a lot about so called "dry bites", where no venom is released. I always thought that the poison release was an automatic reaction that just happened when the snake bit? Maybe dry bites happen because the snake has used up its venom supply and hasn't had time to produce more?

In any case, I always wear heavy full size boots as well as snake chaps, the latter are very use full to ward of cactus spines so I wear them even in the Winter season :winking0023:

Bob

[John B. 46]

Hi PH Bob

There can be many reasons for a dry bite. Small amounts of available venom, not enough pressure applied to the venom glands or fangs weren't erect at the moment of the bite. I Think ?? Happy Huntin John B.

[lotsa luck 30]

Been bit twice, once dry, once not. Did a lot of research on it after the last one (dry bite during a rescue mission) and talked to a couple of herp dudes with the zoo. According to all info I've got a snake can somehow determine how much or little it wants to inject at the moment of strike dependant on the threat, or food decision. It happens in the blink of an eye. A young snake under a year old will almost always inject as full a load as possible with each strike and starts right our of the egg sack. If they intend on eating you expect a full load, if just to scare you off it "may" be dry. My first bite, the snake only saw my hand while i was reaching up above me for a better hold on the rock face. It likely thought my hand was a rat and I got F-d up. Second bite was similar but my entire body was in front of it when my hand got too close during another climb. It was mostly dry and I only spent one night in the emergency ward.

[Earl 0]

lotsaluck

How come you never moved your hand away either time? That snake probably thought, well if you are going to keep it there take this. I've always been able to move my hand back before I got bit.

[lotsa luck 30]

First time was a high angle climb (class 5) and you rarely see your hold during such. Second was another class 5 but even though my hand was in front of him he did not strike until I had benched up showing my body. Neither time was there a rattle nor could I have possibly seen the snake. The first time I was already puckered because a few yards earlier I had been bit by a Chuckwala on the crux of the climb. Then the bad bite and I knew it wasn't my day.

[John B. 46]

Hi Bob

Are you shittin us :POsmiley01: ?? A Chuckawalla bit ??? I've caught many of them and you basiccaly have to stick your finger in thier mouth if you wanna get bit :innocent0009: !! That is if you can get them outa the rocks they've wedged into :shrug: !! I knew you were shittin us :Huh_anim]: !! Come on Bob I never met a ferocious chuck are you sure it wasn't a a man eating tree lizard or a horny toad ( not to be confused with horned lizard) ?? happy Huntin John B.

[lotsa luck 30]

Hi Bob

Are you shittin us :POsmiley01: ?? A Chuckawalla bit ???

Yup i stuck my hand in HIS pocket in the rock for a hand hold and they don't like that. Many AZ climbers have chuckwala stories. Out at Pinnacle Peak there was even one route named after the chuckwala that lived there nibbling fingers that got too close to him.

[John B. 46]

Hi Bob

I,ve never heard of a chuckawalla biting anything besides plants. They are of the iguana family and are exclusivly vegitarians. The horned lizard is one of the rareities of the iguana family that has a diet of insects of course both of these will open thier mouthes when your holding them. I've had my hands and fingers in many a chuckawalla crevice and all they do is go deeper into there crevice and gulp more air to wedge in tighter. The indians used to eat thier tails and would just stab them with a sharp stick deflating there air bladers and pull them out of the crevice. To catch them without harming them is easy, cover part of the exterior of the exposed crevice with a dark cloth and take a stick and tap them on the opposite side from the opening where the cloth is . They will keep moving over until they come out into the cloth !! Another real fun thing to do is catch the big desert spiny lizards and let them bite and hold on to your ear lobes kinda like big ear rings. They will hold the bite for a suprizingly long time, Their bite which doesn't really hurt is considerably worse than the much larger iguana bites I've had from both wild and pets. I should think a chuckawalla bit wouldn't be more than a meer pinch if you were lucky enough to stick your finger in ones mouth. The rest of the stories you've heard about man eating chuckawallas are total BS they are timid shy wary creatures just like bunnies . Happy Huntin John B.

[wyldkatt7 0]

I'm trying to visualize the rescue victim....................... ... ...

Hope SOMEBODY made it to them without being chuck-a-walla'd......... :rofl2:

It's okay Bob.......your stories are always entertaining !!

Keep em coming LL....

~wyld~